***Official*** English Domestic Season 2008

[Richard]

(a) I'd clean forgotten about Samiullah - until yesterday, in fact, when a kid in Oxford turned up at a County trial with that name and a bowling action rather reminiscent of Makhaya Ntini.

Good. Forgetting will do you good. You should do it more.

(b) Durham would not be Champions if their English players were crap.

And where did anyone say "Durham's English players are crap"? Someone (me) said Durham don't have very many home-grown (ie, who have come through their own system rather than been brought in from overseas or other counties) players who are any good (they in fact have a sum-total of 4: P Collingwood, S Harmison, M Davies and N Killeen - only 2 of whom have been regular contributors this season) and they have a hell of a lot who are very poor. But that's different to "Durham's English players are crap".

Incidentally, am I alone in reading these last points as suggesting that the Dickinson/Ceaucescu masterplan for English cricket involves
* No Kolpaks
* All Amateur Status
* England to be secondary importance to Counties
* No one to play outside their County of Birth
* No one born in Lincolnshire, Cheshire, Oxfordshire, Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Suffolk, Norfolk, Herts, Hereford, Bucks, Beds, Berks, Cumbria, Northumberland, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Cambridgeshire, Rutland, Staffs, Shropshire, Wiltshire, Huntingdonshire, the Isles of Wight, Man, or Channel to play top level cricket
* All players to pass the Dickinson Independent Rating Examination before being permitted to play

Anyone spot owt else?

Yes, you are alone. Nowhere have I seriously suggested any of the above apart from the first.

 

[zaremba]

Someone (me) said Durham don't have very many home-grown (ie, who have come through their own system rather than been brought in from overseas or other counties) players who are any good (they in fact have a sum-total of 3: S Harmison, M Davies and N Killeen)

Paul Collingwood?

 

[Richard]

Collingwood would be included, if he didn't have virtually no chance to play for Durham due to England commitments.

Nonetheless, that post in its current form would indeed read as that Collingwood was no use as a county player. Hence it shall be modified.

 

[Anna]

Oh how I wish you were the overlord and dictator of county cricket.

I'd rather hit myself over the head with a cricket bat, thanks...

Btw Richard I think Shants has been unlucky with injuries, hence him leaving Warwickshire when he did instead of Carts - Lego Hair happened to be fit and enjoying a good run of form towards the end of the season, whereas Adam had been injured and was therefore out of form (or something like that!).

 

[Langeveldt]

(a) I'd clean forgotten about Samiullah - until yesterday, in fact, when a kid in Oxford turned up at a County trial with that name and a bowling action rather reminiscent of Makhaya Ntini.

(b) Durham would not be Champions if their English players were crap.

Incidentally, am I alone in reading these last points as suggesting that the Dickinson/Ceaucescu masterplan for English cricket involves
* No Kolpaks
* All Amateur Status
* England to be secondary importance to Counties
* No one to play outside their County of Birth
* No one born in Lincolnshire, Cheshire, Oxfordshire, Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Suffolk, Norfolk, Herts, Hereford, Bucks, Beds, Berks, Cumbria, Northumberland, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Cambridgeshire, Rutland, Staffs, Shropshire, Wiltshire, Huntingdonshire, the Isles of Wight, Man, or Channel to play top level cricket
* All players to pass the Dickinson Independent Rating Examination before being permitted to play

Anyone spot owt else?

A steady stream of mediocre English talent being shipped off to play cricket in South Africa every season?

 

[Chubb]

Just out of interest, Richard, what would the England test side look like if you were Supremo of English Cricket? Who would you actually select?

 

[Langeveldt]

Just out of interest, Richard, what would the England test side look like if you were Supremo of English Cricket? Who would you actually select?

12. Harmison SJ

 

[Goughy]

Just out of interest, Richard, what would the England test side look like if you were Supremo of English Cricket? Who would you actually select?

Ealham and RMJ to open the bowling

 

[Richard]

Not in the Test team. And TBF, RMJ has been poor in OD cricket in recent times. A shame, but I don't think we're ever going to see him in the ODI side. Mind, I thought that about Mascarenhas in early-2007.

Anyway, as to the question - well it's not the thriller it might seem. Right now it'd be fairly straightforward: Strauss, Cook, Shah, Pietersen, Bell, Collingwood, Ambrose, Flintoff, Sidebottom, Anderson, MSP. Bearing in mind the upcoming series is in India. Elsewhere I'd leave-out MSP and pick someone else, though who currently I don't have a clue (ideally it'd be Chris Tremlett but he currently has no case whatsoever). I still hope that Vaughan might get back in in place of Shah or Collingwood (or Bell), but again, he might quite possibly not.

This is a very different question to "who do you currently feel confident about their ability to go down as good Test players in English cricket history?" To which the answer currently is Pietersen and Flintoff and Pietersen and Flintoff alone. I answer the latter question far more than I answer the former, because normally the former is of very little interest as most places are set-in-stone.

 

[Richard]

Anyway the A-team (or "performance squad" as it's termed for some strange reason) was also announced along with the senior Test party:
Tim Bresnan - possibly deserves a go after finally having a good season at the 5th attempt.
Mark Davies - thank God for that, he should've been picked for England A years ago.
Steven Davies - remains a hugely promising wicketkeeper-batsman and hopefully his time will come soon.
Joe Denly - not exactly the best season but someone already seems to have decided he's a future England player. Whether he's a future good England player we wait to see.
Robbie Joseph - interesting one this, as he's always been thereabouts but rarely there. Maybe he's finally starting to kick-on, but at the age of 26 is it a bit too late? As there's clearly still much to be done if he's going to become Test-standard (ODI-standard, forget it).
Robert Key - still just about got time but it needs to be very soon. 38 was hardly an impressive average by his standards last season either.
Amjad Khan - never really rated much.
Sajid Mahmood - aaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Dawid Malan - interesting one, he's barely got off the plane either. Until a few months ago he was a SAfrican. Bit of a Pattinson repeat here. Also after a very good start to the season he tailed-off alarmingly. Really not sure he should be here.
Eoin Morgan - his time is coming, surely.
Stephen Moore - getting on a bit but still got some time, and hopefully is nearly there.
Liam Plunkett - aaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh. He's not even played regularly for Durham this season, and in part this has been because he's been, rightly, judged to be not good enough.
Adil Rashid - A-team cricket is probably about right for him currently, though his 2008 wasn't nearly as impressive as it ended-up looking.
Oliver Rayner - strange. Decent lower-order batsman and vaguely useful fingerspinner. That's it. Never going to make a ODI-standard or Test-standard player for mine, nor come close.
Jonathan Trott - should be playing ODIs, good to see he's still in some form of frame for something.

Those who have legit reason to feel very disappointed: Paul Horton, Jamie Troughton, James Foster, Scott Newman, Simon Jones, Kabir Ali. I'm happy Chris Woakes and Liam Dawson haven't been picked as they're both still too young for mine.

I'm presuming Ravinder Bopara and Samit Patel have been left-out as they'll be in the ODI squad at the time this squad is touring.

Oh, and given the Pattinson and Nannes cases I'm sure Callum Thorp was simply expecting the call and will be devastated he didn't get it.

And thank God they didn't pick James Tomlinson or Alan Richardson.

 

[zaremba]

Just out of interest, Richard, why do you always hyphenate words such as "tailed-off", "left-out", "leave-out" etc? I'm not trying to be either offensive to you or a professional pedant (I don't have to try) but I know how carefully you write your posts and so it surprises-me.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Two Frenchies, one Dane, one Irishman, two Saffies, one German, one fattie, two erratics and one West Indian.

Looks like the squad has been selected using the quota system.

 

[Goughy]

Im really suprised at Paul Horton being left out. Just trying to make my own A Team squad a few days ago there was a noticable lack of batting depth.

I would have also like to see Sales there as senior pro with Key. He is the best England bat Ive seen in the past 15 years not to get a cap.

Anyway, my thoughts

Fair decision and I can see the logic (ie young and with a potentially good future or on the back of a breakout season or next cab off the rank)-
Jonathan Trott
Adil Rashid
Eoin Morgan
Robert Key
Robbie Joseph
Joe Denly
Steven Davies
Mark Davies
Tim Bresnan

Dont like the pick. Dont think the pick will result in the development of an International standard player and they have not had an amazing season-
Oliver Rayner
Sajid Mahmood
Amjad Khan

Unsure whether good choice or not-
Liam Plunkett
Stephen Moore
Dawid Malan

 

[Langeveldt]

Two Frenchies, one Dane, one Irishman, two Saffies, one German, one fattie, two erratics and one West Indian.

Looks like the squad has been selected using the quota system.

You reap what you sow.. Unfortunatly England are succesful at the moment which seems kind of unfair when you look at names like Saj Mahmood in their performance clinics.. I look forward to the days when we can see them beaten against chicken farmers and investment bankers like in the '90s.

 

[fredfertang]

First day in the office after the CC has been decided - it's what I imagine it must be like to lose my best friend (I don't have friends so have no practical experience) - nothing now to distract me from the onerous task of earning a living in these difficult times - roll on April!

 

[Neil Pickup]

Just out of interest, Richard, why do you always hyphenate words such as "tailed-off", "left-out", "leave-out" etc? I'm not trying to be either offensive to you or a professional pedant (I don't have to try) but I know how carefully you write your posts and so it surprises-me.

The same reason that he persists in calling Jim Troughton "Jamie", I think.

 

[Richard]

Just out of interest, Richard, why do you always hyphenate words such as "tailed-off", "left-out", "leave-out" etc? I'm not trying to be either offensive to you or a professional pedant (I don't have to try) but I know how carefully you write your posts and so it surprises-me.

Well, it's simply that these things always seem to me to be "connected" in a way that, for example, "joking aside" isn't. They look far better hyphenated than not, to me.

Incidentally, leave-out wouldn't feel right at all. Left-out, though, yeah. I haven't ever really looked in depth into why (I just go on instinctive feel really). Maybe I might do then get back to you again.

 

[Richard]

The same reason that he persists in calling Jim Troughton "Jamie", I think.

Eh? Jamie Troughton is his name. "Jim" is, in the 1990s and 2000s, an old man's name. No-one seriously calls a 27-year-old "Jim". Both are short for James; Jamie is a young man's name where Jim is an old man's name.

Anyone born after about 1970 won't ever be seriously called "Jim" (or "Jimmy") by me.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Just out of interest, Richard, why do you always hyphenate words such as "tailed-off", "left-out", "leave-out" etc? I'm not trying to be either offensive to you or a professional pedant (I don't have to try) but I know how carefully you write your posts and so it surprises-me.

Isn't "tailed-off" a proper compound verb? Think I'd hyphenate that one.

 

[Richard]

You reap what you sow.. Unfortunatly England are succesful at the moment which seems kind of unfair when you look at names like Saj Mahmood in their performance clinics.. I look forward to the days when we can see them beaten against chicken farmers and investment bankers like in the '90s.

Zimbabwe were better with these chicken-farmers and investment-bankers too y'know...

And England haven't really been much more successful the last 7 years than they were 1990-1998.